Heartbeat: Days Gone Bye
by Legend Maker
Summary: It's the last day of the year. It's the last day of someone's life. And for the Titans, it may be the beginning of the end.


_**Heartbeat: Days Gone Bye**_

"_Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are.__"_

-Arthur Golden

* * *

_**Another year is coming to an end. Another decade. Another number, consigned to the past.**_

_**Everything ends, as the old cliché goes.**_

_**Yet, as another one says**__**…**__**you never quite know how.**_

_**------------  
**_

For a town as scarred and as eventful as Jump City, there were inevitably areas that slipped through the cracks.

One was the several square miles that encompassed Diamoto St and Sanders Ave, known to locals primarily as 'Little Gehenna' (for the few people who were creative about naming trouble areas) or 'The Gems' (for most everyone else). There had been a few projects over the years to try and drag the area out of the cesspool it tended to occupy, but between normal budgetary concerns and other problems, like nutcases who could toss around building-shattering forces like they were pennies, it had remained virtually the same as when the new millennium had started. If you wanted drugs, guns, or 'hassle-free relationships', or cheap labor from wherever it had come from to try and make a living, you went to the Gems. And if you were smart, you kept your head down while doing business, least the eye of the Titans fall on you. But the Titans couldn't have eyes everywhere, and hence the Gems persisted onward.

The man stumbling down the road seemed like any other occupant of the place: he wore soiled and dirty clothing that had seen better days, one sole of his shoe flapping wildly as he took his drunken-esque steps. His sweatshirt had a hood that covered his head and most of his face, and anyone who looked closely might have seen the faint traces of dried blood on his fingers. They might also have seen that where there was blood, there was also no fingernails.

"So, who do you think is going to get his ass taken out this year?" Jason Evans said, sitting on the old bus station bench while eating the large submarine sandwich he had purchased.

"Noah. He's been talking way too much trash. Blasian ain't gonna take much more." Charlton Caine said, biting into his chocolate bar.

"N'aw man, Blasian always struck me as a wannabe."

"Oh shut up." Charlton said, smacking his good friend on the shoulder. "You just don't know how to appreciate his subliminality."

"Likely, because I'm pretty sure you're making that word up." Jason said.

"That's how good Blasian is, man! You need to MASSAGE the language to…" Charlton trailed off as he noticed the ragged form of the man next to him. "What the…oh hey guy. Wassup?"

"…the same as usual, young man, boy, thug, Dennis, whichever you may be." The ragged man said. Charlton cocked his head, looking at the man's features, pale and drawn, a few day's worth of stubble on his face and his short blonde hair pasted to his head with sweat.

"He sounds confused. Maybe we should give him a hand." Charlton said, popping the last of his chocolate bar in his mouth before he reached for the switchblade he carried.

"I dunno man. First we should figure out why you changed your name to Dennis." Jason said, as he cast his good friend a wary glance.

"Shit man, me? I thought that was you!" Charlton replied, his own look saying he was just being on his guard.

"Well I suppose assumptions about my state of mind are fair, care, beware…my share. Oh my, this IS strange." The Ragged Man said. "Am I in Jump?"

"No! You're in fucking Wonderland! Shit man, where'd you think you were!?" Jason cracked, though he was starting to get a prickling of apprehension on the back of his neck. You could never tell if weirdos were just that or something more in a city like Jump.

"Well then…some things never change." The Ragged Man said, twisting his neck as the bones in his spine popped. A moment later a strong gust of wind blew across the street, scattering various bits of litter about.

"So what, you want directions? A snack? Someone to lend your money to?" Charlton said, getting up with a lazy smirk, one hand still on his switchblade.

"Oh what I want is long gone. Now's a new day even as the old year ends, bends, sends, depends…." The Ragged Man said…

And his face disappeared. Charlton's eyes opened wide as he found himself looking as a surging, twisting mass of black…SOMETHING, two glowing dots in the center the only indication where the eyes would be. A moment later, the face was back, and the Ragged Man jerked like he had been struck.

"Not the same never the same…eating my brain…should I complain…?!" The Ragged Man rambled, even as Jason leapt to his feet. He'd seen the shift too.

"Hey man…relax…" Jason said. "Maybe you should…go to a hospital or something…"

"Fuck man, it's a freak! LET'S GO!" Charlton yelled.

"HOSPITAL? After all the WORK they did, keeping me from being sick?" The Ragged Man said. "I do not think I was sick at all! I think maybe, MAYBE, the illness lies tries demise somewhere else entirely! I think…that the screaming tangle in my head…and the calmness that sits beside it and cries…they both want the same thing! I want! What's best! For you! No! Not for you! FOR ME!"

The blast of wind came out of nowhere, blowing both of the young men off their feet, knocking over the trash can nearby, and sending a storm of garbage and debris surging down the street, bits and pieces smacking into and cracking the few windows that remained.

"RUN!" Jason screamed, as the two young men scrambled back onto their feet and fled from the swirling gales that were twisting around the Ragged Man, whose face shifted in and out of the world, the red glare shining forth from the blackness.

"_**SHOWTIMMMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!**__**"**_

The wind carried the Ragged Man up into the air, spinning him around before he lanced down at the fleeing residents of the Gems, yelling madly all the while.

* * *

"…so he just showed up, started rambling, then blew stuff all over the street and then flew through them and then went up up and away, to the moon for all we know." Cyborg said.

"That's what the witnesses say." Police Officer Sandra Haden replied. Said witnesses were being treated for their injuries in the nearby ambulance: while the Ragged Man had not actually touched them when he'd flown past, he'd emitted winds so strong that in his passing that both had been tossed through the air and into buildings like they'd weighed nothing. They'd be entering the new year sporting a few casts.

"Great. And after such a nice peaceful Christmas." Cyborg said. "This just HAD to happen on New Year's…"

Yells of panic suddenly came from the ambulance, and Haden jerked around, her hand going for her gun. Cyborg gently took her arm before she could aim it.

"Relax. It's just my teammate. Apparently, she made an unusual entrance." Cyborg said.

"…is that needed? We already spoke with them…"

"I saw the people you're holding. I have a feeling how they'll act around the police." Cyborg said. "That will not be the case here."

_**------------**_

"Hello." Raven said calmly, staring at the two injured men in the ambulance. "I require information."

Raven got it, though not in any form she could use. The two would-be thugs promptly began blabbering away in a torrent of semi-slurred nonsense. Raven stood at the ambulance door, blinking for several seconds before she held up a hand.

"Quiet. QUIET!" Raven demanded. The two just proceeded to get louder. Raven's eyes narrowed.

"ZINTHOS." Raven whispered firmly, and Jason and Charlton found their words dying as their vocal cords cut out, black energy glowing on their throats.

"Now…what I want you to do…is think REAL hard about the man you saw." Raven said. "Also, I suggest you be wary about what you think. You don't want to…upset me, do you?"

Raven got the sense, as she collected the information she wanted, that they did try to do that. They did not entirely succeed.

She didn't know what that meant, in the long run.

_**------------**_

"I have the mental picture." Raven's voice whispered in Cyborg's head. Cyborg held up a hand to Officer Haden, before turning his wrist as a holographic screen popped up from his arm.

"Let me have it Rae." Cyborg said. Raven floated above the ambulance, crossing her legs to gather her thoughts, and linked up with Cyborg's mind to show him the image her 'interrogation' had wrought. Cyborg promptly fed the image into his computers, which replicated it onto his holo-screen.

"All right, I'll transfer this to the rest of the Titans, and we can start looking." Cyborg said, producing his communicator as a cable snapped out of his arm and hooked up with the device. "Maybe we'll be lucky and…and…"

"Cyborg?" Raven said, floating down. "Are you all right?"

"…I know this guy." Cyborg said. Raven arched an eyebrow.

"…you do?"

* * *

"Roger Simms." Robin said, crouched low over his motorcycle as he drove it down the street, information flashing over his helmet's faceplate. "So how do you know him, Cyborg?"

"Well, I didn't KNOW HIM know him…but if you'd been around 10 years ago Robin, you might have." Cyborg said, driving his own vehicle down another road. "He was mayor of Jump when the millennium rolled around. I never met him, but he seemed like a pretty darn good guy. Jump was having troubles, and he'd run to clean them up. He actually seemed like he was getting somewhere too."

"So what happened?" Morgue asked, her voice interjecting itself into the conversation from her own communicator: all the Titans were listening in.

"Scandal." Cyborg said.

"Vandal Savage's kid?" Gauntlet said, also popping in on the communication band.

"What? No, no, a scandal. He was photographed with…something unpleasant, I'll just say that." Cyborg said. "Or rather, that's what the media CLAIMED. The truth turned out to be it was some guy who just looked a lot like him. Enough to fool the media anyway, and who knows how eager they were to be fooled."

"Some guy who looked a lot like him?" Morgue said.

"Yeah. Guy by the name of John Delgado. It was uncanny." Cyborg said. "And no. No one was ever able to figure out if it was purposely orchestrated by his political enemies, or just a really bad coincidence. Maybe _you _could have Robin, but he was before your time here."

"So he fell from grace?" Robin said.

"Not in the way you'd think." Cyborg said. "The evidence was weak, and Simms likely would have been able to launch a successful libel suit, prove the whole thing didn't involve him…but as it turned out, his wife…"

"Didn't believe him?" Robin said.

"It turned out she had issues. REAL BAD ISSUES." Cyborg said. "When the news broke, Roger was out on a fishing trip. By the time he got back…she'd already overdosed on pills. After she drowned their kid in the bathtub."

"…………ouch." Gauntlet muttered.

"Yeah. Apparently, she'd managed to hide a pretty traumatic past behind a Stepford smile…but the accusation and 'proof' was the last straw for her." Cyborg said grimly. "All that at once…it was too much for Roger as well. He had a nervous breakdown, was removed from office, and from what I heard, was committed to an asylum by his family. His sub-ordinate, Gordon Beevers took over and eventually became mayor…"

"Because he was in the pocket of Thorton Neithercut. Who promptly took over Jump and sent it straight to hell, before the Crimson Queen showed up and tried to take over _his _operations, and we all know how that ended." Robin said. "Everyone keep in contact. From what I can tell, Roger had a brother, Anthony, who still lives in Jump. I'm going to go check there. Cyborg, since you're the one who knows the man best, so to speak…"

"Way ahead of you." Cyborg said, as he pulled up to the Jump City Center for Traumatic Counseling, which was a somewhat more politically correct way to say 'high-end loony bin'. "I'll go see what happened at where he was committed. Everyone else, try and find him."

"Do we have all our number on this? Where the heck is Adam?" Robin said.

"I poked my head into his room this morning." Raven said. "Found a burn mark on the floor and an unpleasant smell. I think he's 'gone traveling' again."

"Great. He can show up, eat our food, and steal my awesome jokes, but when we actually have to do grunt work, he's nowhere to be found." Gauntlet mock-complained. "Hey Cyborg, you're great at building those holiday cannons, think you can build something that will let him control his random teleporting off to whoknowswhereville?"

"Considering he can drag stuff around by accident whenever he does that, I'd be more concerned with building something to make sure he didn't bring something BACK with him." Cyborg said.

"_Absit omen.__"_ Robin said.

"I don't think so, Robin." Raven replied. "That's not the vibe I'm getting."

_**------------**_

"You THREW HIM OUT?" Cyborg said.

"That's not what I said, Mr…Titan." Nurse Knuc said, peering over the rims of her glasses. "He was released over three years ago. He completed his treatment and moved on. We did not 'throw anyone out.'"

"…you're sure?" Cyborg said.

"Mr. Titan, just because you are used to dealing with evil plots, does not mean you will find one under every rock." Nurse Knuc said, give Cyborg an annoyed, wry look. "Mr. Simms actually stayed on longer than he could have. He wanted to make sure he was healthy, and ready to face the world after his tragedies. We don't know what happened to him after that. That seems to be your business, not ours."

"Damn it. Well thanks." Cyborg said, leaving the hospital. "You get that Robin?"

"Pretty much. So the mental hospital is a dead end. Let's see what his brother can get us." Robin said, heading up the stairs to the address he'd been given. "I'm going out of contact. Everyone report in."

"Beast Boy, standing by."

"Terra, standing by." Terra echoed, as Beast Boy was sitting on her shoulder as a hawk. He'd actually spoken into her communicator.

"Starfire, floating in the air." Starfire said from her own position.

"Cyborg, getting in the car."

"Raven, investigating the suburbs."

"Savior, going crazy."

"Gauntlet, wondering if we should have gotten the cheaper kind of champagne." Gauntlet said.

"Hey now, I went to a lot of work to get that champagne!" Morgue said.

"Yeah but the cheaper kind…"

"Scalpel here. Can I join you in going crazy Noel?"

"No real names in the field, Scalpel."

"I'm back in the Tower checking security records."

"…all right. Just be careful when you're NOT."

"Always."

_**------------**_

"So he hasn't come back here." Robin said, sitting on the couch and feeling anything but welcome.

"Didn't I just say that? No." Anthony Simms said. A somewhat rotund man with a neatly trimmed black beard (part of a good dye job, Robin had assessed), Anthony also had a problem with perspiration: he had wiped his face with a handkerchief nearly a dozen times since Robin had arrived at his doorstep. Robin had yet to assess if it meant he had something to hide or if Robin just made him nervous.

"Do you know of anywhere he might go?"

"We weren't exactly close." Anthony said.

"How about where he went when he was released from the hospital?"

"He never gave me an address. The first thing he did when he got out was liquidate his share of the stock our parents left us and head off with the money. I think he wanted to find America, or himself, or…whatever." Anthony said, wiping his face again.

"…something bothering you?" Robin said.

"I don't like it when my plans are interrupted. One of the Titans showing up at my doorstep is a pretty big interruption."

"Plans?" Robin said, arching an eyebrow.

"NEW YEAR'S PLANS. Look, I don't know anything about Roger. For all I know, he's dead. And I doubt he'd be contacting me."

"You don't sound close."

"Now I know you're an only child." Anthony laughed bitterly.

"You and Roger had issues?"

"Roger was a martyr looking for a cause. He wanted to save the world, and everyone in it." Anthony said, bitterness creeping into his voice. "My parents loved how selfless and strong he was, and when I didn't want to be an exact clone of him…well, what can I say? It's why he married Alexandra. _Her _parents had turned her into a mess, and he wanted to fix her. Just like he wanted to fix Jump. And when he ran into a mess he couldn't fix…I guess it was just too much for him. Even when he got out of the hospital, he was never the same. I'm not ashamed to admit it kind of made me happy, in a small, unpleasant corner of myself."

Robin narrowed his eyes.

"Oh stop that. I didn't arrange to have him killed, or do ANYTHING bad to him. I've learned not to care." Anthony said. "I have a wife, I have two daughters, and I write travel guides that people seem to like. I'm happy with my lot and I don't want to rock the boat. Whatever's happening, I'm not involved. Now if you don't mind, I have to finish getting ready."

"…use this if you run into any trouble. We'll come running." Robin said, putting down a small computer-chip like device.

"I don't think it will be necessary. Roger won't come here."

"I didn't mention this before, Anthony, but Roger didn't seem to be in his right mind. True, maybe that's just erroneous witness reports…but even if you're not involved, that might not be what he's thinking. So trust me on its possible necessity. Good day." Robin said, as he headed out of the room.

Anthony watched him go, and once he was alone, he again wiped his face with the handkerchief. This time, there was a distinct chance it was an emission from genuine fear.

_**------------**_

"That wasn't exactly nice." Cyborg said on the communicator a few minutes later.

"Maybe not, but he just rubbed me the wrong way." Robin replied, once again on his motorcycle. "Maybe not all families can be happy, but when you seem to have the intelligence to recognize where the problem lay and decide you'd just rather ignore it instead of addressing it…I don't know. Besides, it's the truth. Better he has some warning that wrecks his plan than not know what's coming and get hurt or worse by that fact."

"Maybe. So now what Robin?"

"How about checking where his family's buried?"

"I just did that. Nothing." Raven said.

"He have any friends?"

"I'm running them down Robin." Scalpel said, typing at the keypad at the Titans' main computer. "But after all the troubles in Jump, we…"

"Robin." Savior's voice said, interrupting Nigel. "I got him."

"You do? Where?"

"Probably your next choice."

_**------------**_

Jump City's City Hall had seen better days. When the Titans had arrived, heralding Jump as a new 'metahuman' city, most of the people working there had quickly realized this made them a potential target for any villain, real or wannabe, and found other places to do their jobs. The bronze gryphons, placed there by an anonymous donor several decades ago, still stood proudly on the stairs, eternally standing guard.

Of course, they were purely symbolic, as Roger Simms came to a stop at the foot of the wide stairs. He cracked his neck again and looked at his old place of business, his stance slightly askew: he'd finally lost the dangling shoe sole somewhere between his run-in with the two would-be gangsters and arriving here.

"You deserved better than this." Roger murmured, holding up one of his hands, his fingers flexing and rolling. "We all deserved better. But you can't fight bite kite night…city hall…or maybe…maybe…"

The whisper on the streets build to a howl, the torn pieces of Roger's ratty clothing dancing in the wind Roger had summoned up.

"Maybe the winds of change never blew hard enough." Roger said. "I suppose doze clothes rose that I can do something about that, EVEN NOW!"

The City Hall building shuddered as Roger slammed a hurricane-force gale into it. Windows shattered, and cracks ran across several stone surfaces that were not used to being subjected to such wind pressures. Despite being a coastal city, Jump had rarely experienced natural hurricanes, and nothing as direct as what Roger was summoning.

"Oh look at you! A bastion of strength!" Roger yelled, raising both hands. "WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I NEEDED YOU?!"

"Roger!" Savior yelled, landing fifteen feet behind the former mayor of Jump. Roger whirled around, his eyes briefly bugging out of his head before his expression calmed.

"…sooooooooooooo." Roger said. "My erstwhile replacement…or maybe not…so strange range change….why do you seem familiar to me…?"

"Roger, it's okay. Calm down." Savior said, holding up his hands. "I'm not here to fight."

"Of course you are. That's what you DO." Roger rasped.

"Roger…calm down. You need to think."

"I AM thinking! Thinking more than I have ever since I got off that boat! It's terrifying! It's liberating! It speaks to me!"

"Roger, calm down. Calm." Savior said. He really hoped his quick sweep and makeshift evacuation of the few people who had been around (it being New Years, most people were at parties or preparing to celebrate Jump's own particular ball drop: City Hall had been closed and hence saved Savior some trouble there) had gotten any bystanders out of the way. "I don't think you had these powers before recently. I think your manifesting of them is unstable."

"THAT'S ONE WAY OF PUTTING IT!" Roger screamed, his face syncing into the swirling black clouds before snapping back, in and out, several times. Savior swallowed: whatever the nature of Roger's powers, it seemed like body shifting was part of it. Human brains could have odd reactions to the new abilities superpowers granted, and they weren't always good. Whatever had triggered Roger's powers, the process was clearly unhinging his mind, which had already taken its own share of blows beforehand. Not a good mix.

"Roger…we can help you…"

"I've had ALLLLLLLLLLL the help I want!" Roger yelled. "I have my mission! I promised once to bring the winds of change to this city, and I will! I command the storm, the blowing force course Norse source of all change! I will bring change to this city, and the world! I am the tempest, the typhoon…I am the Zephyr of change! I shall hal cowl…"

The Shimmer line slammed into Roger Simms/Zephyr's chest, as Savior decided talking wasn't going to work and went for a quick KO.

Instead, he got a quick shock, as the line went straight through Zephyr's shirt and out his back. Savior goggled for a moment: he hadn't put a blade on the end of the line! How did…!

"Heh." Zephyr said, seizing his sweatshirt and ripping it open, revealing his chest had been replaced by the same swirling blackness that had been randomly consuming his face. Like a raging storm cloud. "That's not very nice."

The wind smashed into Savior like a hammer, throwing him backwards down the street. Savior lanced out Shimmer lines as he flew, seizing the ground and pulling himself down to it, more Shimmer energy forming over his eyes to protect them from the wind.

"Guys we-FUCK!" Savior yelled, as he tried to pull his communicator out and found the wind snatching it from his grasp. He really should have seen that coming.

He did not see the large group of newspapers blowing towards him, smacking into his body and wrapping him in torn paper. It was not much more than an annoyance, but Savior wasted several seconds pulling it off, and by that time his communicator was gone. Savior cursed under his breath, turning back towards Zephyr.

Instead, he saw the hot dog cart flying towards him, carried by the wind like a wrecking ball.

"Oh bugger."

Savior released his lines as the hot dog cart plowed into him, the Shimmer managing to take most of the impact as he and the cart tumbled further down the street. Savior fired more Shimmer lines into the ground, not trying to stop himself this time but to get his bearings, before he pulled himself over the cart in mid-air. His time was fortuitous, as a moment later said cart crashed through the window of the laundro-mart Savior had been heading towards. Fortunately, being New Year's Eve, no one was in it either.

"…better you than me, buddy." Savior said, turning back towards where Zephyr was.

Just in time for Zephyr to slam a tornado-esque blast of wind into Savior, throwing him backwards through the already-broken window and through the door at the back of the laundro-mart.

"Show's over." Zephyr said, waving his arms around. More swirling funnels of wind surged up, both inside and outside the building. Said building promptly collapsed from the drastic strain, the cloud of dust parting around Zephyr as it enveloped the street.

"Such a shame lame cane blame." Zephyr said. "Or maybe belated justice….why would I…"

The sonic cannon blast struck Zephyr in the back, throwing him onto the pile of rubble he'd just made. It should have knocked him senseless, if not for the air cushion Zephyr formed to (mostly) negate the blow. The thing that annoyed Cyborg was his sensors couldn't tell if Zephyr had done it purposely or instinctively. Knowing that would have helped him form a proper battle plan.

Fortunately, he had already made a great opening move. Or rather, Raven had, as she had gambled some precious time to teleport around Jump and bring all the Titans together instead of each trying to make it to Savior under their own steam. Her delay had nearly caused Savior to be buried under rubble, but her last trip had been to grab him. He wasn't complaining, as Zephyr stood up and looked at the gathered Titans.

"Encore." Cyborg said.

"…Robin, he can control winds. At least Alpha level, maybe higher." Savior said. "His body seems to be randomly shifting between flesh and a core of wind as well. I'm pretty sure it's driving him mad, if he isn't already there. Calling himself Zephyr."

"Got it." Robin said, stepping forward. "Roger Simms! We ask you to stop and come with us! We want to help you!"

"You! Help me? HAR!" Zephyr laughed. "You're a little too late, and a little TOO LITTLE AT THAT!"

The wind blast hurled a myriad of rubble pieces at the Titans. Raven and Gauntlet's shields kept the worst of it away, though a few of the Titans still ended up getting smacked here and there.

"I don't think negotiating with the budget Tornado Tyrant is going to work Rob." Gauntlet said.

"I noticed." Robin said. "Morgue, Beast Boy, you hold back for now and look for people. Get them out of the way. The rest of us, go on the offense. Try not to hurt him if you can avoid it."

The Titans answered in the affirmative, as weapons were produced and powers warmed up.

"Let's try and get this done without us missing our tradition. TITANS GO!" Robin yelled, and Raven and Gauntlet dropped the shields, Gauntlet switching to providing cover for Beast Boy and Morgue to retreat as the rest of the Titans surged forward.

They didn't get far, as the wind bomb went off right in the center of the Titans. Or rather, the vacuum bomb did. Later, Robin theorized that Zephyr had used his ability to manipulate and push air to violently displace a segment of air where the Titans had been, resulting in a implosive collapse as more air rushed in to fill the void. Despite the scattering blow, the Titans swiftly recovered, looking at Zephyr as he floated on summoned winds, his torn-up sweatshirt flapping around him like a cape.

"IT'S SHOWWWWWWWWTIMMMMMMMMMEEEEE!" Zephyr yelled. None of the Titans knew that that had been what Roger Simms had called out to his staff during his political run, a rallying cry now turned into a sadistic shriek.

Likely, none of them would have much cared anyway. Roger Simms was dead.

All that was left was the winds of change.

* * *

Some might have said that Robin hurling a Birdarang at Zephyr's head was futile, but from the viewpoint of Tim Drake, nothing ventured was nothing gained. Zephyr deflected the attack with wind, of course, but at least Robin had learned that he could actually do that.

Wind, however, could not deflect sound. Zephyr improvised, wind tossing him to the side and away from the shot. With another lash of his hands, screaming gales surged across the streets and the air above them, blowing Cyborg backwards and throwing Starfire and Raven around despite their best efforts to stay on course. They'd become teapots in a tempest, so to speak: it also kept them from being accurate with their own blasts and attacks, the green projectiles and black projections each missing.

"You'd best not take advantage!" Gauntlet warned Savior, white energy lines already wrapped around him.

"Perish the thought." Savior said, taking a few seconds to aim, before he hurled Gauntlet through the air towards Zephyr.

"Hey! You!" Gauntlet yelled, firing out a yellow energy fist. It smashed into Zephyr, sending him lurching back across the sky, even as Gauntlet grabbed hold of him and tried to squeeze him into unconsciousness. It didn't work, as Zephyr unleashed another several hundred mile-speed wind against the Titan, blowing him backwards as he tried to hang on.

"Augh! You know…a zephyr is actually a very weak wind! A gentle breeze! You didn't do the RESEARRCCHHHH…!" Gauntlet yelled before he finally lost his grip, getting tossed across the sky.

"I accepted no name game fame shame…" Zephyr said.

Savior's back up toss arrived them, as Scalpel crashed into Zephyr, the far greater weight of the alien successfully knocking the former mayor out of the air and sending both plummeting to the ground.

"Hello. Surrender?" Scalpel said, pressing his glaive's length down on Zephyr.

"I accept!" Zephyr said, wind surging up around his hand. Scalpel tried to take one hand off the staff to punch, but he was too slow, as Zephyr slammed the intense orb of wind into his chest.

"ARGH ACCURSED JAPANESE ANIMATION!" Scalpel roared, blown off into a spinning whirl before he crashed through the building behind him. Zephyr flipped around and re-directed the wind, said wind just keeping from hitting the ground, as he flew down the street towards the crossed roads ahead.

The stone pillar hit him from the side as he flew through them, knocking him down the perpendicular street. He did several mid-air tumbles before he righted himself, snarling as his face and body shifted through his volatile 'storm form' a few more times.

"Suck and blow all you like." Terra said. "I know how to ROCK!"

Several boulders hurled themselves down the street, but the winds they met were fiercer still, knocking the attacks askew and keeping them from hitting Zephyr. Terra, feeling the residual wind clawing over her face, was suddenly very glad for her goggles.

"Your repartee sway neigh clay needs some work!" Zephyr snapped, slamming his hands together and sending a fierce, narrow tornado projectile towards Terra. Terra yanked up the street to protect herself, only for said projectile to drill right through the road and into Terra, throwing her back down the street as her jacket and shorts were shredded. Fortunately, Starfire was there to catch her, even as several more Titans swooped in to attack Zephyr in turn.

"You ALL do!" Zephyr yelled, slamming out his arms. Wind exploded out from him, Zephyr the literal eye of a hurricane, the buildings around him groaning and deforming under the wind's impact. The Titans were tossed around and smashed about from the wind at the same time, leaving them scattered around like fallen leaves.

"I am beginning to regret not having that New Year's party you wanted, Gauntlet." Savior said from the car that had fallen on him.

"Hah. Told you."

_**------------**_

Robin was picking himself up before a swarm of bats merged near him, forming into Morgue.

"Morgue, I told you to get clear! This isn't as bad as it looks!" Robin said.

"Perhaps, but I figured you should know this Robin. I have good news and bad news."

"Hurry up!"

"The good news is, there's virtually no bystanders nearby. Even in the buildings."

"Okay and?"

"The reason for that is because they're all clustered in the city center for the New Year's drop! Which really isn't as far from here as you'd probably like!" Morgue said. "We have some wiggle room, but not much!"

"Right then…" Robin said, pulling out an explosive disc. "TITANS, GO! HARD!"

"You have NO CONCEPTION OF WHAT DIFFICULTY ACTUALLY IS!" Zephyr yelled, as he smacked the explosion disc Robin had hurled from him into another building. "You think not knowing when to quit is an admirable trait?"

Savior, Gauntlet, and Scalpel all leapt through the air at Zephyr. They hit a swirling sphere of wind that Zephyr manifested over him, tossing them away like rag dolls.

"LOOK WHERE IT GOT ME." Zephyr said, as he thrust out a hand, multiple blasts of wind catching Robin, Starfire, Beast Boy, and Morgue and throwing them away as well.

"Dammit man!" Cyborg yelled, thudding down nearby from his own leap. "YOU'RE BETTER THAN THIS! You wanted to save the city LONG before any of us came along! Why are you doing this? Is this what your wife and kid would have wanted?"

"They're dead." Zephyr said matter-of-factly. "They no longer have any concerns I can deal with. Perhaps they never did."

"Fine then." Cyborg said. "What about all the people who voted for you? Are you saying all you said was a lie? What about the people who tried to tear you down, are you saying they're RIGHT?"

"Why don't you tell me, heroes! You have all the answers! Unfortunately, answers do not equal solutions!" Zephyr said. "I remember when I was mayor, when the year finally crossed to the millennium. So much hope. And what did we get? Ten years of disasters, of you superheroes wrecking the planet and the universe, and having nothing to show for it but more battle scars!"

"We're still here. Besides that, we can't do everything. No matter how much we want to, sometimes." Cyborg said.

"Apparently not!" Zephyr yelled, shifting briefly to storm-form again. Cyborg really didn't like the readings he was getting from that. "You couldn't stop those lunatics from flying planes into New York, could you! Must have been something eating Jupiter that day that required your attention! What about New Orleans and Katrina? How about that lunatic who shot up Virginia Tech? Hell, even if you COULD have stopped all those, I would have liked to have seen you punch out the business operations that ripped the guts out of our economy courtesy of sub-prime mortgages! So much hope, and for what? One long, slow decline of a decade! Maybe I failed this city, but YOU failed it worse!"

"Maybe." Cyborg said. "I'm pretty sure some people thought they had failed when the 1970's ended. The peace of the 50's, the desired change of the 60's…all buried under a decade-long storm of cynicism and human failing. I bet they thought the 80's would have been even worse. Were they? That's really a matter of opinion. Here, a more clear example. I'm sure people were lamenting the years ahead when 1940 came. Here they were, in another world war, less than 25 years after the last one, all their efforts to stop it failed. They weren't wrong in their lamentations. But they didn't give up. Neither will we. Maybe the 'Aughts' were the 'Ought-To-Have-Been-Betters'…but hey, it's like Red Sox Nation always used to say. There's always next year."

Zephyr's only response was an inarticulate yell, the winds surging around him and carrying him up…

Before the black claw slammed him back down into the ground. Cyborg hadn't just decided to monologue on a whim. He'd been working with his team to set up a proper shot.

"Let him HAVE IT!" Cyborg yelled, firing his cannon. A Starbolt, large piece of smooth stone, and golden yellow fist answered his call, even as Raven lashed out with another black energy claw. The attacks converged on Zephyr simultaneously, smashing him into the ground and hammering a small crater around him from the impact. The street shook, and then went still.

"…right then. Who's got the power nullifier handcuff…things?" Gauntlet said. Robin and Savior did not respond, cautiously making their way to where Zephyr lay.

"What are you getting guys?" Robin asked Cyborg and Raven.

"He's out. He's…" Raven trailed off, even as Cyborg's eyes widened. "Oh no."

The blast of wind threw Robin and Savior backwards, Zephyr rising out of the crater on a surge of black wind. The key word was black, as the previous wind offenses he'd mustered had been nearly colorless. His body flashed and spasmed, altering from flesh and blood to sheer power and back again. Said power was likely why both Raven and Cyborg had mis-read the situation, and they had not been given a chance to correct their error.

"So this mist wisp pissed is what you seek. To always do better. Once people after my own heart." Zephyr rasped, his voice becoming a weird howling echo when his face shifted to storm-form. "Now…I know what to do. I know what I'll give you. You want to do better in this new year, I'll give you a PROPER LOW POINT TO START FROM."

Birdarangs, Starbolts, and a sonic cannon blast were fired too late, as Zephyr screamed before his clothes fully disintegrated, his body vanishing even as the black winds increased ten, twenty, a hundred fold. The Titans were all hurled back as Zephyr transformed into a massive black tornado, his 'upper half' connecting to the dark clouds above even as his lower half tore the street the Titans had been on to shreds.

Robin barely caught something with his grapple, swinging onto a nearby balcony as he stared in horror. Even as he did, the tornado began to move, tearing right through the building beside it and reducing it to nothing. That was bad enough, but what was worse was that Robin knew exactly which way the transformed, out of his mind Roger Simms/Zephyr was going.

The center of Jump.

* * *

"…hey, man? Sir? We should be going."

"Not just yet…not yet…" The dark form said, standing on the distant rooftop, watching the tornado be born and begin to ravage through Jump's streets, heading directly for the thousands gathered to celebrate the New Year. "Let's just pause to…savor the moment."

The girl glanced at her new companions, and, not for the first time, wondered what she had gotten into.

It was followed, as it always was, with the swift realization, and rationalization, that she couldn't go back.

And why would she want to?

She'd been selected by the future.

* * *

"I hope you have a plan Robin!" Beast Boy yelled as loud as he could, barely able to keep in the air as the bird he was AND be heard over the sound of the tornado.

"I'm working on it!" Robin yelled back, also having to struggle to be heard. He hurled an explosive disc into the whirling black mass, but the wind was too strong and his effort was easily deflected. "Crap. Raven, can you hear me?"

"I can." Raven said in Robin's mind.

"How about a psychic attack? He still has to have a mind in there!"

"I tried…it's too big…too chaotic…need…AHHHHHHHHH!" Raven shrieked, as a piece of building was tossed into the air and directly into Raven, knocking her out of the sky. Robin saw an angry Savior immediately jump into the tornado to get revenge, only to be tossed away equally as easy.

"Damn it." Robin said. "Cyborg, come in!"

"I hear you man!" Cyborg said, floating on one of Terra's rocks as he fired shot after shot into Zephyr. Despite the fact he could actually hit the 'man', he didn't seem to be getting anywhere either.

"What about your Oxygen Destroyer?"

"…oh FUNK AND WAGNER! I'd been tinkering with that damn thing recently, it's in pieces! It would take me an hour to properly assemble it!"

"And the hits just keep on coming." Beast Boy said. "Guys, I'm going to try something! Be ready to catch me!"

Beast Boy flew off, taking directly to the air before transforming into a brontosaurus. His massive weight plummeted down towards the tornado, hoping maybe he could scatter it. He was also wrong, as the winds seized him and hurled even HIS multi-ton bulk aside. Beast Boy turned into a rat, just in case, but it wasn't need as Starfire was there again, catching him even as she fired eye beams into Zephyr's mass.

"Nosenuggets. I HATE things you can't punch!" Gauntlet cursed, and tried to punch Zephyr anyway. He got a first hand look at Noel's curse instead, as the winds seized him and hurled him through an apartment's windows, the walls inside it, and out through the other windows before he crashed back down onto the street. "AND I ALSO HATE SUBVERTED JOKES!"

"Gauntlet." Savior said, landing next to the blonde-haired Titan. "You all right?"

"Just my bones and organs…" Gauntlet muttered.

"Suck it up. I need your help."

_**------------**_

"Hey! Robin! What if I drop a skyscraper on it?" Terra asked from where she flew.

"What? Aren't those mostly metal?"

"Enough rock to do the job!"

"…last resort! For all we know, it'll just give him a whole bunch of debris to toss all over Jump and onto a bunch of people's heads!"

"You better decide fast! We're running out of road!"

"WHAT?" Robin said. He quickly ordered Starfire to fly over and pick him up. Much to his regret, Terra was right. The tornado was closing in on the town center and the masses that stayed there. And nothing the Titans were doing was even slowing Zephyr down.

"Robin, I have a plan!" Savior's voice crackled on the communicator.

"Great! Tell ME what it is, too!" Gauntlet complained.

"Help me pick this up." Savior said, running towards an 18-wheeler tanker truck.

"What? Savior, what's in that?"

"A metric fuckton of explosive fuel." Savior said. "We're going to toss it into Zephyr's body, as it were."

"And do what, hope he makes the needed spark to set it off?"

"No, we'll set our communicators to self-destruct. Trigger them, toss it in, boom. Hopefully it will provide enough counter-force to dissipate his body."

"Uh Noel, I'm not sure if that's a good idea! For all we know he'll throw it back out before it explodes! Worse, he could throw it into the town center, you saw how he tossed Beast Boy around, and he was a dinosaur!"

"I think we have a pretty good chance it will work!"

"Pretty good not's really THAT good Savior! There are thousands of innocent people over there!"

"And there are going to be thousands of innocent DEAD people if we don't move, NOW!" Savior yelled, grabbing the front of the 18-wheeler with multiple Shimmer strands and dragging the truck forward.

Gauntlet stood there, uncertain.

"Gauntlet we really don't have time to…OHSHIT!" Savior yelled.

Gauntlet turned around to see the myriad of girders flying through the air towards the pair. Zephyr had been closer then the Titan had realized, and worse, he'd passed through a construction site.

"DOWN!" Savior yelled, jumping on Gauntlet a second before a girder took his head off. Gauntlet added his own efforts by pushing off the ground and rolling the pair away before a few more lower-flying girders did what the initial one couldn't. Instead, the metal struts crashed into the fuel truck Savior had been planning to use, ripping through the vehicle and storage container like tissue paper.

"Oh crud vapors." Gauntlet said.

"MOVE!" Savior yelled, yanking Gauntlet up as he fired a Shimmer strand to the nearest building.

The two had just gotten up on the roof when the ignition happened. Gauntlet would have felt bad for the families who would return home to find their apartments in ruins, but at the time all he could feel was the gigantic pressure smashing into his body, the shockwave carrying both him and Noel several blocks away before they crashed back down onto another street. Their respective talents saved them, in the end: Robin would have been reduced to pulp.

"Ohhhhh…definitely going to forget this." Gauntlet said.

"Rob…" Savior muttered, his voice slurred. "You all right?"

"Hey…no real names in the field."

"…right." Savior said, trying to get his head clear as his Shimmer produced a communicator. "This is Savior…plan was botched. Sorry guys…"

"Hey wait, didn't you LOSE your communicator?"

"My main one Gauntlet. I do carry a spare."

"Roger that Savior." Robin said.

"Yeah we definitely got Roger'd." Gauntlet said, before Savior held up his hand for quiet.

"Guys, gather together. We have to hit this guy as hard as we can! Everyone contact in, let me know where you are!"

"I'm getting Raven, boss!" Scalpel said, have tracked down the site of Raven's landing. To his lack-of surprise, he pushed the rubble aside to find nothing there. "…right, she's not here. Must have warped. Raven?"

"I'm here, my friends." Raven's voice said in all the Titans' heads. "Sorry for my silence…but there's a reason. I have my own plan."

_**------------**_

Jump City's center was packed to the gills, a somewhat rare sight in the past decade. Between the increased crime, and then all the metahuman problems, most people tended to stay home for the New Year's. A peaceful December, though, had been enough for the town to come party. And unlike the parties in Time Square, winter coats were optional.

Raven was floating above all the revelry, her purple cloaks torn to ribbons. The Titans' inability to land a blow on Zephyr, and the fact that this was his target, was what had inspired to bring her here.

"What's the plan Raven?" Robin's voice said in her head. Raven sighed and steeled herself. Part of her hated that she could do this, would ever think of doing it, and knew how to do it. She'd learned the technique from bitter experience.

On the other hand, she did it for them. The innocents beneath her, the people of Jump City. Roger Simms, Zephyr, felt in his madness that he had to destroy them. Raven would do anything to stop that.

The rest were regrets to have later.

Raven was used to that.

"Remember what we did with the Black Lanterns?" Raven said, as she held up her hands. "Same basic thing."

_**------------**_

"Robin! If you want me to get the skyscraper, now's the time! It's not like picking a flower!" Terra yelled into the communicator. She'd heard Raven's plan, but there was no sense in not having a backup.

"I dunno Terra, sounds like it might be a case of using a nuke to put out a fire!" Cyborg said.

"Titans! No disagreements! Not now!" Robin said. "I'm the leader! I will make the decisions!"

"I'm listening." Terra said. Robin grit his teeth, and hoped the dice were kind.

"No skyscraper! Instead, hit him! AGAIN! HARD! Maybe, just MAYBE, we can actually do something!"

"You hear the leader. HIT HIM!" Savior yelled, having returned with an uprooted lamp post that he bent into a rough circle and hurled at Zephyr's mass. Starfire and Cyborg rained down projectile attacks, while Terra tried the next best thing she could think of besides a skyscraper and ripped up the streets beneath Zephyr, both trying to attack him and slow him down. Gauntlet borrowed one of Terra's rock platforms ala Cyborg and tried to punch at a distance, Savior did likewise, and Robin ransacked his utility belt and threw every single item he thought might work into the black-cloud tornado. Even Beast Boy borrowed one of Morgue's guns and tried to fire at Zephyr with her from a distance.

None of it worked. The Titans didn't waver.

Even as Zephyr tore through the last building in his path and changed directions, heading down the main street towards Jump City's center.

* * *

Raven was grateful for two things.

The first was that where the battle with Zephyr had began had forced him to approach the town's center 'from the back'. While the former mayor was indeed bearing down on the crowd gathered for New Year's, he was heading in a direction so that a majority of people were facing _away _from him.

The second was that the partying crowd was making so much noise that they didn't hear the tornado, which was hardly quiet. Raven knew neither would last long. MOST of the crowd hadn't seen the tornado, but there were people who HAD, and it wouldn't take long for the panic to spread.

Raven floated there, her hands together as if in prayer, and reached out with her mind.

_Roger Simms. I try to reach beyond whatever illness and change cloud your mind. If you are still in there, somewhere, stop. This is not what should define you. If there is anything left, stop. Or __**I **__will stop you._

The roaring howl she got back saddened Raven. She had hoped that she could make what was left of the man turn back. But there did not seem to be anything left. Just an overwhelming sense of anger, pain, and hate. And still far too big for her to affect with just her own mind.

But if all that was left of Roger Simms was violent emotion, Raven happened to have something that could counter-act just that.

She'd learned it when she'd teamed up with evil incarnate to save the lives of her friends, and crafted emotion into a bomb.

She'd done it again, in a more controlled fashion. She'd reached into the crowd below her, and taken a bit of their happiness, their joy, their camaraderie, their hope. With it, she'd fastened an arrow to let loose at Zephyr's heart.

"Remember." Raven said, splitting her hands apart as a golden shaft ignited between her fingers. "Remember. And stop."

Raven did not need a dramatic gesture: the arrow let loose from her hands and shone across the sky towards its target.

* * *

Pain. Whirling, overwhelming pain, tearing at his thoughts, his words, his body. All that he'd felt since he'd woken up in that alleyway, not knowing where he was, barely remembering _who_ he was and how he'd come to be there. Pain, and confusion, and power.

He had not felt in control of himself since then. He felt like a puppet, dancing on strings through his former city. Felt the raging storm build in him as he terrified people and tried to tear down where he'd once worked, feeling the storm reach its climax as the Titans battled him and his humanity was finally torn away, leaving but his mind and the pain. And the prodding sense of someone poking him, telling him what to do.

All before the arrow struck home.

It erupted through him, the hopes and dreams and beliefs of the legions. What he'd sought to nurture and inspire. What he'd come to believe wasn't worth anything in the end.

He'd been wrong. He was seeing that, firsthand. After all that had happened, to him, and them, they still had what he'd lost. What he'd been willing to cast away.

…except it hadn't been him at all. And with that terrible truth exposed, the prodding was gone, and so was the will to keep on this path of destruction.

Roger Simms could barely comprehend much now, but he felt the blackness closing in. A calm, soothing blackness. Peace.

Peace those left behind may not have much longer.

If Roger had any regret before he was gone, it was that he couldn't tell the Titans that.

* * *

"…heh. I almost don't believe it." Terra said. Raven had fired her 'emotion arrow', and the tornado had stopped dead, in its tracks. As the Titans had watched, it had whirled on the street for several moments, and then began to fade, the dark clouds growing lighter and then breaking apart. Within ten seconds, there wasn't a trace of the wind storm left. Merely the destruction it had left in its wake.

"…hah. That's my girl." Savior said.

"Way to go Raven. Way to go." Robin said.

Raven wished she could share in the Titans' victory, but she could not.

She'd sensed it, while touching Roger Simms' transformed consciousness. The old, familiar taint. She didn't know why it was there, or what it meant, but it was there.

The time was fast approaching, and it dampened any satisfaction she would have felt at her victory.

"…hey! It's one of the Titans!" Someone in the crowd said: they'd finally looked up at the right time. Raven floated there, lost in her thoughts, until the knowledge had spread far enough below her that she could hear the cheers.

She looked down the throngs beneath her, waving and celebrating, some chanting her name…and she was reminded that no matter what, she couldn't let him take it away.

So she gave them a slight smile, and a few waves, and then disappeared into a black portal. Such thoughts were for a later time.

* * *

"Nothing?" Beast Boy said. Robin shook his head, gently, and lowered Roger Simms' wrist down onto the ground.

"Whatever gave him his powers was unstable." Cyborg said. "He kept altering his form, back and forth. It puts immense strain on the body, especially if you're not trained in it. When he turned into that tornado, Raven forcing him back was it. His heart gave out."

"…poor bastard." Gauntlet said, looking at Roger Simms' naked, prone corpse, the Titans all standing in the hole he'd scoured into the street before he finally turned back. Starfire returned, having procured a small blanket from somewhere. Normally Robin would have protested against her contaminating the crime scene, but he let it slide. Some things you should always have, and a little dignity in death was one.

"At least he didn't go out a mass murderer. That's something." Savior said. He checked his watch. "Hey guys, we still have time. We'll have to do the police wrap-up, and I feel bad that _they__'__re _going to spend the New Year's here…but them's the breaks. We've done our part."

"Too bad we couldn't do more." Morgue said, having felt like a fifth wheel during the whole thing.

"Sometimes that's just…how it goes Morgue." Raven said, floating nearby. "Sometimes that's the weary path you tread."

The Titans were silent for a moment, before Gauntlet coughed.

"I'd like to note that the truck throwing plan's failure was not my fault."

"No it wasn't Gauntlet." Savior said.

"Look Savior you…oh. Right then." Gauntlet said. "So, who's for champagne when we get back?"

* * *

"…well then. It's done. Secure the data, Miss Mori."

"Yes sir."

"You want some help?"

Marissa Mori stared at the woman, as if she didn't comprehend the question.

"She can handle it, Kyleona. She's my second for a reason. If she gives you an order, treat it as if it came from me."

"…yes sir."

Marissa kept staring. Eventually, Kyleona Lynessa turned away.

* * *

"So…you stopped the guy…by having Raven shoot him with an arrow made out of good emotion, which theoretically reminded him of who he was and made him stop being a tornado." Metatron said, his black suited form sitting on the edge of the Tower roof. In the end, the Titans HAD managed to get back to their Tower in time to break out their champagne and watch the ball drop. They'd found Metatron there, having returned from wherever he'd vanished. "Well, I suppose if you're going to yank something out of your ass, it might as well be interesting in shape."

"Maybe we could have done something more badass and heroic if you'd, you know, SHOWN UP." Rob said.

"Sorry. My journeying comes and goes. But I'm back now. And I brought pie!" Metatron said, holding out a pie.

"Nice coat. Where'd you get it?" Tara asked.

"Oh this guy I hang out with gave it to me. He went through some changes in his life recently. Said I could have it." Metatron said, holding out the long brown coat he was wearing.

"Yes, it's just too bad you couldn't have been getting your belated Christmas present when we were all fighting for our lives." Nigel said in a mostly joking tone. Sophie elbowed him in the ribs, the alien emitting an 'offfff!' as she did so.

"Hey, none of you are dead! All's well that ends well, right?"

"It's not over." Robin said, sitting nearby with his mask off and Starfire sitting in his lap. "Tomorrow we have to start investigating. Find out the details. How and when Roger came back to Jump, the nature of his powers, who's behind it, if anything…but that can all wait until tomorrow."

"Auld sync lang." Starfire said, and kissed Robin on the cheek.

"Hmmmmm, Nigel. You make any resolutions?" Victor asked.

"Not yet…not good at keeping them."

"I have a few 'resolutions' we can make after we go downstairs." Sophie murmured. Nigel grinned so wide Beast Boy began complaining the light off his fangs was blinding him.

Noel entered the roof, having switched his torn up jacket for a new one, one hand in his pocket as he approached the group. He ran his tongue along his teeth, turning what was in his pocket over a few times. He still wasn't sure if the time was right yet…

It didn't seem like it would be that night either. Raven was talking to the just-returned Metatron, and from the look on her face she wasn't exactly happy. Noel muttered to himself and took his hand out of his jacket pocket. Maybe later. Valentine's Day was due up soon…

"You've learned to detect it, haven't you?" Metatron said. "He was there."

"…whatever caused Roger Simms to turn into that thing, he had a hand in it." Raven said quietly. "I don't think he did it for his own amusement. It has to do with the day that's approaching."

"Hmmmmm. You're going to have to tell the others soon." Metatron said. Raven looked like he'd punched her in the gut. "As hard as it is. They'll all need to be there. With all of them, maybe you can end it. With them, and the element of surprise…maybe. Just maybe."

"…I just wish I knew _why _he did this."

"Knowing Ricky? It's another Kansas City Shuffle." Metatron said. "But all this lead up isn't important. Just the last dance. And they'll have to be ready."

Raven didn't reply. Metatron grinned and flipped away from where he'd been sitting, and Raven stared at empty air for a few seconds before Noel put an arm around her.

"Don't dwell on Roger, Raven. We did everything we could. You know that." Noel said. "You can't change everything."

Raven could only think about how right her long-time love, as she tried to comfort herself in his affection and watched the distant ball began to drop.

* * *

"Do you wish to look at the data sir?"

"It can wait." The Lord of the Night said, settling into his new throne. "I suspect I know what it will say. Between all the failures in the…recruitment, I suppose one catastrophic one is expected. And I turned it to my advantage pretty well."

"Yes sir." Marissa Mori said.

"And out of all those failures…enough successes. Enough." The Lord said, looking at the three kneeling forms in front of him. Marissa had shown wariness about recruiting outside aid, but what was coming was important enough that the Lord had taken the chance. Besides, after what he'd learned in his 'treatment' of Marissa, the Lord knew how to ensure loyalty. "Speak your names."

"Hyperthermia." Kyleona Lynessa said, the moonlight reflecting off the flamed decals pressed onto her white track suit.

"Carcinogen." Tremaine Dedrian said, the faint Jamaican accent clear in his words. He wore a suit entirely of leather, including a coat made out of it, his hair neatly combed and styled into a ponytail.

"Aguardiente." Brody Whelan said, his pale white face and thin body hidden under several layers of blue cloaks.

"…and of course, the one who is still being…crafted. You'll meet him soon enough." The Lord said. "I give you a new name. You are Genocide."

The three bowed their heads, as the Lord summoned his crystal chess board. Selecting three featureless pieces, he cast them in the visage of the newly reborn Genocide.

"Happy New Year, Titans." The Lord said. "Enjoy it while it lasts. This is the year it all changes."

And the Lord dispelled his chess board and looked out at what lay before him. His newly crafted lieutenants, and the carved hole on the inhabited island that nearby France had called _La Voix De Mort_, from the noise the water made being sucked through the many shoals on the island's border, shoals that had claimed a few ships and lives, and given the island it's name.

The French had no idea how true their name would be.

Soon.

Soon.

"The horror." The Lord mused to himself. "The horror."

* * *

_To Be Continued_

_In __**HEARTS OF DARKNESS**_


End file.
